This Prospect Park South House Has A Hidden Booze Room

Photo via Fred Conrad/The New York Times

When buying ancient real estate, one can only wish and dream of stumbling across secret rooms designed during the days of Prohibition or The Underground Railroad. "Oh, this?" you imagine telling houseguests while tipping a nondescript book on a shelf, revealing a secret passageway. "This is our secret room." 

This is exactly what happened to Architect Eric Schiller. Upon purchasing an old Victorian house on Westminster Road in Prospect Park South, he discovered a rectangular outline on his staircase's first-floor landing. Upon prying open the secret door, he found a four-foot-deep space equipped with a ladder and shelves. 

“This was an affluent area during Prohibition,” Schiller told The New York Times, “and it was in these spaces that people kept their private stashes of illegal booze.”

Since these days we need not hide our bottles of rum and whisky, perhaps Schiller can use the space for extra storage, or to house embarrassing artifacts that he'd rather his guests not see, but can't seem to get rid of. A collection of My Little Pony Dolls, for example. Or Serial Killer Trading Cards.

[Via Gizmodo, NYT]